I caught Dylan’s saucer-wide eyes in my periphery and held in a laugh. I’d been too pissed off about my own life upon my arrival to be star-struck by Jake, and when we got to talking one day, we were just two guys learning how to walk. In our group sessions, the playing field leveled out quite a bit.
“How’s it going, Jake? This is my sister PJ and my best friend, Dylan.”
“Well, nice to meet you.” Jake extended his hand to them both, but smiled much wider for my sister.
“That play at the super bowl last year,” Dylan gushed. “Fucking amazing, man. I bet they miss you this season.”
“My dad always talks about that play, too. He was impressed, even if it was against the Giants.” My sister shook Jake’s hand, but he kept hold of it for a beat too long. The clenching in Dylan’s jaw made me to do a double take. The way Jake leered at PJ pissed me off too, but there was something in Dylan’s rigid stance that didn’t make sense.
Jake was a nice enough guy, but he was in his thirties, and my sister was only eighteen. Much to my and our dad’s dismay, PJ was a beautiful girl who turned heads all over the place. I liked Jake well enough, but I’d beat him with his own crutch before he tried to make my sister into a groupie.
“How often do you come to visit your brother? I would have noticed you before.”
“Not that often,” Dylan answered, the wonder in his voice now replaced with irritation.
“No offense, but I wasn’t asking you.” Jake laughed, arrogant and hearty, and I marveled at the brass balls this dude had as he moved closer to PJ. “Maybe next time you come to visit Jack, you could make some time for me—”
Dylan shot up from where he sat on the bench and in two short strides was in Jake’s face. “Take the hint and back off, asshole.”
He chortled before backing away, his hand raised in defeat. “Noted. See you at the weights, Jack.”
Dylan glared at Jake’s departure, giving PJ a possessive yank into his side. I gaped at them both as the big mystery unfolded before me.
Dylanwas my sister’s secret; a secret they’d kept from everyone, including me, for who knew how long. I exhaled a long breath as I willed myself to calm down.
“My dad is going to kill you.” I leveled my eyes at Dylan, fighting to keep the quiver out of my voice. “You know that, right?”
Dylan shrugged before he picked up PJ’s hand and laced their fingers together. “Probably,” he answered me but kept his gaze on my sister. “She’s worth it.” He brought their joined hands to his lips with an easy—more established than my eyes wanted to see—intimacy. “She’s worth everything.”
How long had this been going on? Was I that lousy of a brother? I was into my own problems and self-pity that I didn’t have a single clue. I’d promised to always protect her, but protecting her from Dylan? He was a threat I’d never seen coming in a million years and wasn’t prepared for. The thought of Dylan and PJ while she was underage had bile rising in the back of my throat.
My sister’s sheepish eyes met mine. “You’re mad, aren’t you?”
“I don’t know if I’d call it mad,” I answered honestly. I sure as shit wasn’t thrilled, but showing her how I really felt wouldn’t do anything but make her shut down and not speak to me at all. I was weirded out and pissed at Dylan for taking advantage of the crush we all knew she had on him, but I wasn’t mad at her. I was too worried about her to be mad. “Is this why you all of a sudden don’t want to go away to school?”
She shrugged before looking up. “I never wanted to go to San Diego. Not really. Mom and Dad are happy I’m staying home.”
“Mom and Dad know something is up. They don’t know why you changed your mind about going away or where you’re sneaking off to every night.” I cocked an eyebrow as my stomach turned. Dylan was there the day she came home from the hospital as a baby. PJ sat between us for hours on end, holding a fake controller so she could “play” video games with us when she was only a toddler. I’d always thought he had the same brotherly feelings toward her as I did, and now they weretogether. The whole thing made my skin crawl. He was someone I’d considered a brother for most of my life, but as it turned out, I didn’t know him at all.
PJ’s watery gaze made me stumble as she pleaded with me. “I need you on my side.” She grabbed my hand, her voice quivering. My sister’s suffering was always my kryptonite. Her voice would shake along with her tiny jaw, and I’d give her whatever she wanted. “You know Dad will freak out.”
“Freak out?” I coughed out a humorless laugh. “Dad is going to lose his fucking mind.” I kept my voice as even as I could to hide the fact I was losing my own goddamn mind. My gaze slid to Dylan’s for a moment. “How could you do this?” I asked him through gritted teeth. He wouldn’t look away. In fact, the stone-cold gaze he shot back at me seemed almost expectant. He knew I wanted to let him have it, but I couldn’t.
“We’re in love, Jack.” It took me a long minute to turn toward my sister’s voice. Her body was rigid, but there was no missing the fear in her eyes as they searched mine.
“In love?” I huffed, my jaw clenching so hard my neck cramped. “PJ, you’re eighteen fucking years old. What do you know—”
“She knows, and so do I.” Dylan spoke for the first time since claiming my sister in front of Jake. “I love her. You don’t have to like it or even understand it, but you won’t dismiss it.”
I shot him an icy glare and dropped my head into my hands, my turbulent brain frazzled as it tried to make sense of the bomb dropped into my lap only a few minutes ago.
My best friend and my teenage sister … the sickening thought rolled back and forth in my brain. For the first time, I was grateful for my bad leg. It was the only thing keeping me from popping off the bench and leveling him out.
“You don’t know what you’re doing,” I whispered before I craned my head toward PJ, her trembling jaw telling me I was fucked. I could fight with Dylan and warn him away from PJ, only succeeding fueling whatever was between them. PJ was the most headstrong person I knew, and letting myself freak out in front of her would only make her hate me.
“Jack, please,” she repeated, and just as I hadn’t refused her anything in eighteen years, I let out a defeated sigh and nodded.
Her shoulders slumped with relief before she lunged at me, cinching her arms around my neck.
